New Arrivals

Visuals are often used in younger years classrooms but they are also very helpful for EAL pupils.  Most pupils will recognise the item/word/place from the picture, so having visuals around your classroom and throughout the school will help build their vocabulary as well as their confidence.  If you can, have pictures with the English word and the pupils native language on them. 

• Visual timetable.

• Visual lunch menu.

• Pictures of school items on the trays / boxes.

• Pictures on the doors of different rooms in the school.

• Pictures of new vocabulary for special topics

• Flashcards

• Basic needs lanyard flashcards - your ASN/SfL Teacher should be able to help with these

Ask a couple of your pupils if they would be willing to act as role models and guides, helping the new pupil around the school during non-class times and possibly even during certain class activities, as well as demonstrating expected behaviour during different situations.  These pupils could help show the new pupil where the bathroom is, what do to at lunch, help them find things in the classroom, and be someone to play with at break and lunch. 

Please ensure your pupils understand what you like them to do and that they are willing to act as role models and guides. It is also helpful to have more than one pupil who is willing to help so that the roles can be rotated and no-one pupil is acting as a role model continously.

Some new EAL pupils can go through a silent period which can last up to 6 months. Don't worry if your new EAL pupil is in a silent period, continue to involve them in activities as usual and include them in conversation without forcing them to participate. They will still be learning English.  

If the silent period lasts longer than 6 months then it could be related to another issue and should be investigated. 

Some pupils are not literate in their native language and this affects the strategies you can use in class as well as the support they will need.  For some languages this will also affect the usefulness of translation tools as there can be no option to translate their language when spoken. 

You have probably heard this one before but it really does help.  Don't worry if you have an accent.

These phrases can confuse EAL pupils because they need an in-depth knowledge of English to understand the meaning of the words used, which is often different to the usual meaning.

• Stick your coats on -> in this phrase, an EAL pupil might understand this as "glue your coat on" and be confused as to what you actually wanted them to do. Instead, use "Put your coat on". 

Don't change what you want to say (within reason) but repeat key words and phrases. If a pupil says a single word rather than the normal phrase, repeat it back, and then add more or answer the question. You can eventually build up to expecting more language from the pupil. Examples would be:

• Can everyone/you sit down, please? -> Sit down, please? -> Sit down (with mimed action)

• Bathroom -> Can you go to the bathroom? Yes, you can go to the bathroom. 

• Bathroom -> (gesturing to self) Bathroom, please (gesture to pupil, can also mime listening so pupils understand you would like them to copy and say same phrase) -> Bathroom, please -> Yes you can go to the bathroom.

Narrate what you doing out loud or a task that the EAL pupil (or another pupil) is doing.  This builds up vocabulary by naming items and actions as they are be used or happening but also starts to build up basic sentence construction. Examples would be:

• I'm going to take my whiteboard and write on the date on the board, then I am going to draw...

• You are using the red pen to draw the first box on the paper. What will you do next? Now you are taking the green pen and writing your name at the top of the page. 

• John is putting the ruler away in the tray for rulers. 

Allow your new EAL pupil extra time to respond to questions as they are having to translate English to their native language and back again in order to answer. 

You could also pre-warn a new EAL pupil when you will be asking them a question and what the question will be. 

• After John, I will ask you a question.

• After John, I will ask you "What did you do at the weekend?"

• In 2 minutes, I would like to tell me the answer to question 3

Bear in mind that your new EAL pupil is having to work twice as hard to communicate as they are translating English to their native language and back again. They made need regular breaks from communicating or working in English during the school day. 

Find out the new EAL pupils native language and learn about the language and cultural differences. Compared to English, some languages do not have the same parts of grammar (articles, plurals etc.), have different sentence order, different pronunciation, and even different writing systems or scripts (English vs Japanese), to name a few. 

A cultural difference that comes up frequently with English is "please" and "thank you". Often, other cultures don't expect these words for everyday tasks or in everyday conversations, so EAL speakers may be considered impolite when they do not use them. Holding doors for the next person is another difference. 

Non-verbal communication is very important for an early-stage learner